Anti-thyroid autoantibodies (or simply anti-thyroid antibodies) are autoantibodies targeted against one or more components of the thyroid

Thyroid

The thyroid gland or simply, the thyroid , in vertebrate anatomy, is one of the largest endocrine glands. The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage...

. The main types of anti-thyroid autoantibodies are anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (also called anti-TPO antibodies) and stimulating autoantibodies that are associated with Grave's disease.

Anti-TPO antibodies

Aanti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies anti-TPO antibodies are most commonly associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Hashimoto's thyroiditis

Hashimoto's thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed by a variety of cell- and antibody-mediated immune processes. It was the first disease to be recognized as an autoimmune disease...

). Thus, an antibody titer

Antibody titer

An antibody titer is a measurement of how much antibody an organism has produced that recognizes a particular epitope, expressed as the greatest dilution that still gives a positive result. ELISA is a common means of determining antibody titers....

 can be used to assess disease activity in patients that have developed such antibodies.

Effect on human reproduction

The presence of anti-thyroid antibodies is associated with an increased risk of unexplained subfertility (odds ratio

Odds ratio

The odds ratio is a measure of effect size, describing the strength of association or non-independence between two binary data values. It is used as a descriptive statistic, and plays an important role in logistic regression...

 1.5 and 95% confidence interval

Confidence interval

In statistics, a confidence interval is a particular kind of interval estimate of a population parameter and is used to indicate the reliability of an estimate. It is an observed interval , in principle different from sample to sample, that frequently includes the parameter of interest, if the...

 1.1–2.0), miscarriage (odds ratio 3.73, 95% confidence interval 1.8–7.6), recurrent miscarriage (odds ratio 2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.5–3.5), preterm birth (odds ratio 1.9, 95% confidence interval 1.1–3.5) and maternal Postpartum thyroiditis

Postpartum thyroiditis

Postpartum thyroiditis is a phenomenon observed following pregnancy and may involve hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism or the two sequentially. It affects about 5% of all women within a year after giving birth. The first phase is typically hyperthyroidism. Then, the thyroid either returns to normal...

(odds ratio 11.5, 95% confidence interval 5.6–24).